St. Nicholas came last night

Happy Easter

Off chasing the elusive Easter egg, with ego in full-bloom, as I finished sewing Baby M's rabbit just in the nick of time. Not too shabby.

I'm Sticking With You, Valentine

Inspired by these sweet valentines, I made my own version of them for all the neighborhood kiddos. I love how much texture of the wood & string add to such an otherwise simple card.

Newness Ends

(image of Austin's First Night Parade by the talented Gretchen O'Neil)

New Year's Resolutions:
1. Get a designated sewing area set up & my Pins & Needles business started.
2. Make more, buy less
3. Bring more of 'me' back into my life.
4. More rock, less talk.

Getting Dumped

OK. We had a nice time. We had some laughs. We all enjoyed your blinky lights & the hijinks, but now, Christmas Tree, I think it's time to go.

No offense, but have you noticed how you take up almost a quarter of our living room & block our passage into the dining room? Yes, there I said it. You're kinda big in the middle. I'm sure you can't help it. And I know that we are partly to blame too, loading you up with trinkets & toys until all your branches are loaded down.

I think it is time that we part ways. Please understand that I'll look back on our short time together & smile. We had fun, didn't we? We'll always have that.

I just need some space right now.

Photo via won7ders

Christmas Morning

Christmas morning found us...

Dressing our favorite dolly up in holiday duds:
Eating Swedish pancakes with lemon, powdered sugar & jam:

Crafting a few new ornaments (sparkly mushrooms!):

Resting & reading with our feet up on the coffee table (this is our view from said location):

Stars of the Tree

Our Christmas tree is up & is under siege. Both our cat & our toddler are beyond fascinated by the shiny baubles & wooden toys hanging on the lower branches. We are finding our ornaments everywhere: under chairs, in drawers, behind the couch. Fortunately, we put both our dearest & most fragile ornaments up high or deep inside the tree for glimpses of sparkle & depth. Tragedy averted.

The undisputed King of the Tree is our leather lion. And our lucky, plump pig is from a (free!) Wee Wonderfuls pattern (Thank you, Hillary!).

I've said it before & I'll say it again: I love seeing these dear friends again!

Odd note about the lion. I found this noble fellow at the strangest estate sale. That lady had a mind-bogglingly crazy collection of size 6 shoes. An entire bedroom of racks & racks of barely worn high-end shoes in every color & only one style: high-heel pumps. Those shoes & this lion for 50 cents. I left with the lion & a one big, ol' goofy smile.

Making Christmas Cards

It's begun!

Though I picked up a couple of boxes of beautiful letterpress cards from Vertallee Letterpress while checking out the East Austin Studio Tour last month, I couldn't afford to get enough to handle all our cards (every year, we seem to send out more! And more! And more!). So, it's handmade time again this year. I bought a stack of pretty, red stationary & am stamping them with my nifty stamp set from the Yellow Owl Workshop. Add a few tastefully restrained drops of glitter & voila! Done. Instant recession goodness.